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We'll be looking at 2 Peter 3
to introduce us to our text in 1 Thessalonians, which we've
been considering. So you can begin turning to 2 Peter. Then
after 2 Peter, of course, goes 1, 2, 3, John, Jude, and Revelation.
So it's about five or six books in from the very back of your
Bible. And if you don't have a Bible this morning, there's
one in the pew in front of you that you can follow along. But
2 Peter 3. We need to answer the question
together this morning, which is phrased thusly, what's next? As we look into the scriptures,
we find that God desires for us to know what is going to happen
next. He desires for us to know what
he is doing. And he desires for us to have
a knowledge and not to be ignorant and in unbelief of his hand in
this world. And St. Peter, in his third chapter
of his second epistle, The third and fourth verse aptly describes
the attitude so many people have toward what the scriptures prophetically
give us. In the past few weeks, we've
seen some amazing world-shaking events. America sends down the
largest airborne troop movement that we have done for years down
and invades Panama. The Russian borders are opened,
and we see Christian ministries springing up inside of the Soviet
Union. The people of Berlin are no longer
encircled. They're free now to come and
go at will. Romania is humbled. One of the
most totalitarian of the states is crushed. Israel is increasingly
threatened. And America, amazingly, has been
catapulted into a place of, again, springing up democracies around
this world. And we ask the question, what's
going to happen next? And how does all this fit into
what the scriptures say? Well, when we get into prophecy,
and as we see in 2 Peter 3, 3 and 4, there's an attitude that crops
up. Let me read you these two verses
and then share a few things briefly with you this morning to get
prophecy and perspective of what's coming up next. Peter says this,
verse 3. Know this first of all, that
in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following
after their own lust, and saying, where is the promise of his coming?
For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as
it was from the beginning of creation." You have probably
read, you've probably heard, and you've probably seen in various
places the innumerable prophetic utterances I know that if you
shop at the supermarkets, you'll see Jeanne Dixon and Company's
prophecies for the next year on all those cheap newspapers
that they sell at the checkout counters. All of those usually
turn out to be so vague and so unspecific that they could possibly
happen, and they possibly couldn't, and you would never know whether
they did or not. And the rest of them usually are so absurd
that they never happen. So to many people, prophecy is
something that you ignore. because they're foolish predictions.
Or, as we see right here in verses 3 and 4, that many people say,
nothing has changed. Because of evolution and that
false theory thereof, they say everything has just continued
edging onward with no drastic change, just a gradual change. Therefore, everything continues
just as it was from the beginning. Well, the scriptures say that
there are some very specific dangers for us to avoid when
we look at prophecy. Let me share those with you in
light of what Peter is warning us about here, and then continue
on with some other important items from this before we go
to 1 Thessalonians. The first danger we should avoid
is the danger of setting dates and making dogmatic declarations
that aren't based on the scripture. That's very dangerous to say
that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to return in 1979. I remember hearing a man say
that. And I have to tell you that he didn't return in 1979.
Then another said that he was coming in 1992. We shall wait
to see that. But I can almost tell you that
if they pick a day and an hour, that they'll be wrong. Because
the Lord says in such an hour as we think not, he will come.
The first danger is of setting dates and dogmatically alluding
to things that aren't in the scriptures. Another danger to
avoid is the danger of making the study of prophecy an end
in itself. And we've gone through an era of that in America, where
prophetic conferences and prophetic books and prophetic meetings
and prophetic everything, it was kind of like the movement
where all of a sudden we find ourselves with ties that are
too wide or pants that have too bright checks or skirts that
are the wrong style because it went out of vogue. That's not
prophecy. Prophecy is not making the study
the end of all. It's the means to an end. The
third danger we must avoid is constantly spending our time
answering questions that no one is asking. We must be relevant,
and the Scriptures are. Look again at 2 Peter, because
there are two doubts that must be dispelled when we think of
prophecy. The first one here is the doubt of uniformitarianism. You say, what? Well, right there
in verse 4, it says, all things continue just as it was. That's not true. The skeptics
say that everything from the beginning of matter and time
has never been interrupted. But look at verse 4. As it says,
from the beginning of creation, things have not all been the
same. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice,
verse 5, that by the word of God, the heavens existed long
ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by water, and
that through which the world at that time was destroyed, being
flooded with water. The world believes that things
have evolved and there's been a basic flow uniformly throughout
time. God says that's not so. He said
there was a time when nothing existed but God. There was a
moment that God intervened and began time and space and matter
as we know it. There is a second time that he
intervened and he destroyed life on this planet as we know it,
except for Noah, his family, and one of every unclean creature
and seven pairs of every clean creature on this gargantuan boat
that God designed for him. And because of that, God says
in verse 5 and verse 6 that the doubts that the skeptics give
us that all things will remain the same because they always
have remained the same is doubly wrong. Things have not remained
the same because God created from nothing this universe in
a moment of time God brought this earth to its knees in a
flood, which was his judgment. And he said, there's another
judgment coming. Don't believe. And don't have
the doubt that God will not intervene prophetically in the future.
But now let's look at what all of us enjoy. Because not only
are there some dangers that we must avoid and we shall, we won't
be dogmatic unless the scriptures are dogmatic. We won't talk about
things and place dates because the Scriptures tell us not to,
we won't have doubts that God will intervene because He has
told us He will, and He has in the past. But our last consideration
this morning are some events to await. Seven successive events
that are either present right now or shall come, which the
Scriptures refer to in very clear and very unmistakable ways. First
of all, God's program in this world at this time is the Church. Matthew 18 and Matthew 16, the
two references in the Gospels to the Church, tell us, number
one, the Church was purchased by Jesus. Before He left the
earth, He promised that He would personally be building His Church,
and that's what He's doing right now. This is the Church of Jesus
Christ at Quidnesset. You who sit here this morning,
you are purchased possessions of Jesus Christ if you've come
to know Him. personally. That is God's program. The second aspect of that program
is that the Holy Spirit is equipping. And it says in Romans 12 and
Ephesians 4 that the promise which began at Pentecost continues
to this day that instead of having one lone prophet, God has now
made us an entire kingdom of priests and a holy nation. All
of us individually have been equipped, we have been and filled,
we have been indwelt by God the Father through his spirit to
portray Jesus Christ in this whole world. That is God's program. Finally, this church is kept
by God. Those who are called out by Christ
become a part of his universal body, the church, and will be
preserved as a unit in this world until his purposes for that church
have been completed. So if you want to know where
you are in prophetic history, you are in this very important moment
of time when God's program for this world is, instead of preaching
the everlasting gospel by an angel, that's coming, instead
of sending a lone prophet into this world, such as Moses and
such as those prophets of the Old Testament, God has raised
all of us up to give the good news of Jesus Christ and to live
the goodness of Jesus Christ out through our lives. Well,
the second part of God's plan, and that which is drawing us
to 1 Thessalonians. And if you'll turn back there
to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, because the very next event which
the apostles were looking for, which the first century church
was looking for, which those earliest church fathers were
looking for, and which has been the hope of all who have known
Jesus Christ and have looked into his word throughout the
centuries since he ascended into heaven, is given for us in 1
Thessalonians 4, in verses 13 through 17. And just to show
you how much the people were looking for this, Paul says in
verse 13, we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about
those who are asleep. Already after Paul had ministered
to this group of people in such a brief time between his ministering
in Thessalonica and his leaving and writing back to them, some
of those early saints had died. And they were so expectant of
what he had talked about in chapter 1, verse 10, in chapter 2, verse
19, in chapter 3, verse 13. They were so anticipating that,
that when someone died, they started getting very sad. And
they said, we've just laid to rest, as we shall soon, Doris
Kornfield. What about Doris? What about
all those saints in Thessalonica that have been buried? They're
going to miss the return of Christ because that's what they were
looking for. Well, that's what he's addressing in verse 13.
That you may not grieve, in the middle of the verse, as the rest
who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those
who have fallen asleep in Jesus. Christians don't die. They fall
asleep in Jesus. For the Lord Himself will descend,
verse 16, from heaven with a shout in the voice of the archangel,
the dead in Christ that have been laid to rest asleep will
be the first ones out and the first ones up. And then the rest
of us will be snatched up into his presence. What's the second
aspect of God's plan? What is the very next thing that
will prophetically happen in this world? Not the Antichrist. Not the coalition in Europe.
Not the beast showing up. Not the great apostasy totally
taking over. We don't look for any sign. There
is no sign waiting for us to be seen before Christ comes back. Because Jesus Christ could come
back from the moment that he left until this very moment at
any instant in time. Paul said, we are expecting that
eagerly. In fact, he said, for we which
are alive and remain. In verse 15, he expected to be
alive and remaining for Christ's return, because that's how fervent
the hope was. What is this called? Well, it
says here, verse 17, then we who are alive and remain shall
be, and there's that very amazing word that has caused so much
discussion in the church, and it's the word harpazo, which
means to be snatched or grabbed or stolen from the midst of. It's used often in the New Testament
of someone coming and grabbing something and running away with
it. And it says here in verse 17 that Jesus Christ is not going
to come and touch the earth. He's only coming in the clouds.
And He, through His divine power, is going to snatch out of this
world those who know Him personally. That, theologically, has been
called the rapture. Biblically, it's called the coming
of the Lord for the saints. That's the second aspect of God's
program. Dead believers will be raised first. Living believers
will then be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord. The very next aspect is in Second
Corinthians 510, and I'll read it to you. You don't have to
turn there unless you want to. It says, for we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ. In that instant begins the judgment
of the lives of believers. That's why Paul exhorted these
people to be ready for the Lord's return. The third event in God's
prophetic calendar is, after the church age ends, after Jesus
Christ removes from this world those who are his, he begins
the examination of those people. It's designed for believers,
and it only deals with rewards, not with salvation. If you are
going to know the Lord Jesus Christ personally, you will know
him here. You won't be judged for that
and determined whether or not you make that in some later future
time. It's right now that we must decide
for Him before He comes or calls. Well, real quickly, the fourth
event is God's wrath. And as soon as God pulls out
from this world all those who are His, then the Scriptures
tell us that God begins His time of wrath. Look at 1 Thessalonians
5. Right after chapter 4 tells us
the church is snatched out of this world, chapter 5 tells us
what begins to happen in the world. One of the most powerful
and convincing proofs for the fact that we shall not go through
the time of tribulation is just the sequence the Scriptures give
us of when that tribulation begins. Chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians,
the dead in Christ and the living in Christ are removed from the
world. Chapter 5, He begins this, now as for the times and the
epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written
to you. For you yourselves know full well the day of the Lord
will come like a thief in the night. While they are saying,
peace and safety, then destruction will come upon who? Them. Not us. God has not appointed
us to wrath, his scriptures tell us. God has not appointed us
to bear the wrath that he is going to put on this world. What
is that wrath going to be? a seven-year period of time on
earth that will occur that will be the most tremendous chaos
this world has ever known. Satan will be unrestrained. He
will establish an unholy trinity. He will be in the place of God
the Father. At his right hand will be a man called the Beast
in Revelation 13. He will make peace with Israel,
and can't you see that coming as we are hastening toward disarmament
around our world? He will bring a unity and a prosperity
to the world. He will place on his followers
a particular mark without which they will not be able to buy
or sell. Don't we see that coming? As now they're talking about
a cashless society when everyone has a number that a barcode,
that a scanner could read. You'll never have to be robbed
again because you'll never carry money again. How prepared our
society is for this. And the false prophet, the beast's
right-hand man, will be a deceiver. In place of the Holy Spirit,
he will draw together the world under one great unified religion
and government. And in the midst of all that,
God begins hurling down his wrath. And in three and a half short
years, 42 months, from the middle point of the tribulation to the
end, God will destroy one out of every two living human beings
on this earth. One half of the world's population
will die. in a terrible cataclysmic outpouring
of successive plagues. The climax is, of course, in
Revelation chapter 16, the word all of us have heard, the place
that many of us have seen, Ha-Armageddon, where the final conflagration
of this world will break out in one of the most perfect battlegrounds. Starting in verse 13, Armageddon
unfolds, and we will look at that. This climax is the tribulation
period And the fifth aspect of God's prophetic plan is the divine
intervention that takes place at that moment. As the first
coming of Christ, He came as a babe. The second coming of
Christ, He will come as a king. And Christ intervenes with great
power and He comes to conquer this world. And if you read in
Revelation 19, it talks about the fact in verse 11 that He
comes on a white horse With faithful and true written on him, he comes
and his eyes are aflame. He cuts down the nations of the
world, and this babe comes back as a king. The suffering lamb
in the first advent returns as the Lion of Judah to conquer
this world. Christ, who came the first time
for a cross, returns the second time wearing a crown. He comes
the first time in obscurity. He returns the second time in
blazing light. And all the world sees Him and
mourns and grieves. And they seek to have the rocks
fall down upon them because His glory they cannot hide from.
He came the first time to seek the lost. But when He comes the
second time, He is sealing the doom of all who have rejected
Him. This is in great detail talked
about in Matthew 24. We see that Christ judges the
earth. All those who are left alive
go through a judgment called the sheep and the goat judgment.
That's in Revelation 19, 11 through 16. You can read about it. Matthew
25, it talks about it. Unbelievers will be judged, removed
from the earth, cast into a holding place of punishment until the
ultimate judgment. And thus ushers the last aspect
of the second advent, which is the beginning of the kingdom
of God. What's amazing is that more than one-fifth of the Old
Testament is about the millennial kingdom that God's going to set
up. And the reason why many people have great difficulty with a
lot of the Old Testament is it doesn't have anything to do with
us. It has everything to do with the future reign of Jesus Christ,
literally, on this earth for 1,000 years. If you want to read
about that, one of the first descriptions of it is in Isaiah
chapter 11. It will last 1,000 years. Satan will be bound, as
it says in Revelation 20. An angel comes down, verse 1,
having a key and binds the evil deceiver for 1,000 years. Those who were put to death during
the tribulation reign on the earth. The curse is removed from
the earth, and the environment will be perfect again. Let me
say that again. The environment will be perfect
again. If you are very concerned about
the environment, The most important thing that you and I can do to
make the environment perfect again is to point people to the
one who is going to come and restore this earth. The earth
will again be rolled back from the curse of sin and there will
not be carnivorous animals, there will not be poisonous serpents
or reptiles or spiders. The earth will again be in a
near perfect state. Christ will reign as the righteous
judge and the heart of man will be revealed that without divine
intervention, it will not change. For what happens at the end of
that time? Revelation 27-9 says, Satan is released after the thousand
years, he comes, he deceives the world, the world follows
after him, and God says, that's enough. And God's conclusion
is seen in Revelation 20 verses 10-15, as he takes the earth,
2 Peter 3 says He burns it with
fire. In that text we were at previously,
all unbelievers will be judged and cast into the lake of fire.
And Revelation 21 and 22 say that eternity will begin. That
is the future, my friend, in seven successive steps. The church,
the rapture, the judgment of saints, the tribulation period,
which is coming on this earth, the second coming of Christ in
power to judge, to bring the earth into subjection, the great
battle of Armageddon, the conclusion when God seals this earth into
the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ, And at the end of that
time, God consummates history and ends time and begins eternity. I ask you this, what's next?
Well, if you know Jesus Christ, if you have the Son, good things
are coming. What's next? If you don't know
Jesus Christ, if you have not the Son of God, then you're facing,
perhaps in your lifetime, the most horrendous era in the history
of mankind. And at the end of that time,
death, eternal fire, brimstone, and the horrors of hell. And
God said, that's our choice. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. What's next? God has it planned out. Have
you enacted your part in his plan for the future? Let's bow
for a word of prayer. Thank you, dear Father. This
morning, that your word is so clear, thank you that you tell
us to watch for that day with eagerness to anticipate the day
of your coming for us. Your coming for this world will
be a horrible time, a time when men's hearts shall fail them
for fear. But your coming for us in a moment, in an instant
of time, to snatch us out of this world is our blessed hope. Thank you for promising you shall
save us from your wrath to come. Thank you for giving us the program
for the future. Let us live in expectancy of
it in the days to come as we examine it more closely and see
what our part is to be. And we'll bless your name for
Jesus' sake. Amen.
MOI-27 - Seven Steps - From Now to Eternity
Series Miracle of Israel
| Sermon ID | 99112018123300 |
| Duration | 23:45 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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